Category: embassies

“Handing down her judgment at Westminster magistrates court, the senior district judge Emma Arbuthnot said she was not persuaded by the argument from Assange’s legal team that it was not in the public interest to pursue him for skipping bail.”

‘The Foreign Office turned down a request from the Ecuadorian government to grant Julian Assange diplomatic status, amid reports the WikiLeaks founder may have received citizenship from the Andean country.’

‘Domestic workers employed as members of the service staff of foreign diplomatic missions in the United Kingdom were entitled to bring proceedings asserting their employment rights against the employer state, in claims including unfair dismissal and breach of working time provisions, and such claims were not barred by the doctrine of state immunity pursuant to provisions in the State Immunity Act 1978.’

‘This judgment concerned the conjoined appeals of Ms. Benkharbouche and Ms. Janah which arose from employment law claims brought against, respectively, the Sudanese and Libyan embassies. Certain of their claims, such as those for unfair dismissal, were founded on domestic law. Others, such as those under the Working Time Regulations 1998, fell within the scope of EU law. All were met with pleas of state immunity under the State Immunity Act 1978.’

“While there was nothing in section 118 of the Extradition Act 2003 to delay its operation pending the Secretary of State’s consideration of medical evidence after the conclusion of extradition statutory process, continued extra-statutory consideration of a case by the Secretary of State could be valid subject to the court’s judgment as to whether reasonable cause had been shown for delay following the conclusion of the appeal process.”

“The latest twist in the Julian Assange case, as we await Ecuador’s decision on granting him asylum (a decision which would not, as I’ve written before, in itself allow protection from arrest if he steps outside the embassy), is that people are wondering whether the UK can simply strip the embassy of its diplomatic status, so allowing police officers to enter it.”